A few months ago, I shared with you some silly conversations I’ve had with my husband, Nick, as a mushy little tribute to him and his ability to always make me laugh. One of the reasons we’re complete opposites is because he has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor while mine is very silly, and it makes for some interesting exchanges. And as such, these silly exchanges just keep on coming. Today I thought I would share some more little conversations with you in hopes of making you chuckle to brighten up this gray and dreary Tuesday.

It’s like he reads my mind.
Me: I feel really weak.
Nick: That’s because you’re sick and haven’t been eating well. Don’t worry, you’re not going to die of weakness overnight.

Womp, womp.
Me: Let’s tell each other jokes all day
Nick: You know I don’t know jokes
Me: Hmm, make some up
[pause] Nick: How many miles did your car have?
Me: Idk, how many? 😀
Nick: I don’t remember, that’s why I asked
Me: Oh, I thought it was a joke

My very own Ron Swanson.
Me: Give me a list of the tools you want.
Nicholas: Oh man…that’s a broad question.  All of them?
Me: Sure (thinking he was asking if I wanted him to list *all* the tools he wants)
Nicholas: No, I mean all of them. I want all of the tools.
Me: LOL, okay
Nicholas: No wait, I’m afraid what you heard was I want a lot of tools. What I said was I want ALL of the tools!

photo source

While listening to 90s R&B as we painted our bedroom, No Scrubs came on.
Nick: That’s just prudent; why would they both need to drive their cars downtown?
Me: It’s because he doesn’t have a car of his own.
Nick: Well, that’s different
Me: Don’t act like you don’t know what TLC is bringing to you, son!

Right after we got married.
I walk out of the bedroom this morning to make my coffee and find Nick sitting on the couch with his tablet. He looks up at me and says, “I made your coffee…because that’s what husbands do.” This is definitely love.

Once again, I believe that not only do we make a great team, but we’re also really fun to be around. There’s never a dull moment! These conversations are just one of the many, many reasons I love him so much.

Today I’m going to gush about my husband, Nick, for no other reason than I want to. But don’t worry, I won’t get too mushy. One of the things that first attracted me to him – aside from his dashing good looks – was that he always made me laugh even though he has this really dry, sarcastic sense of humor. I’m almost the complete opposite (no surprise there since we’re perfect opposites) because I like pun-y, corny jokes that my six-year-old nephew might tell. My favorite joke, for example, is What did the fish say when we ran into the wall? “Dam!”
Hahahahahahhahaha. Cracks me up every time. He doesn’t get it, though 😉

You can probably imagine what it’s like when the two of us are together.  We often have conversations that go a little something like this:

Me: I need to moisturize my hands. They’re so dry.
Nick : Drink more water. Moisturize from the inside.
Me: “moisturize from the inside”… that could be a slogan for something.
Nick: Yeah, water.

He ain’t wrong….

Then, of course, you have these gems:
Nick: those look creepy
me: you look creepy

…….

me: I wish we could get a goat and make cheese with its milk
Nicholas: I’m not a farmer
me: I know, you’re a grouch

And this text that shows real love between husband and wife:
Me: [at the store, getting essentials for the upcoming snow day]: I got soup, sandwiches, and cereal. Anything else?
Nick: Not off the top of my head. I’m getting beer. You need any wine?

One morning I gave the dogs a small bite of my scrambled eggs at breakfast and Nick said I would be the type of mother that would spoil my kids by giving them whatever they wanted. When I got to work, I find a message from him saying he wants to get a new phone:

me: it’s not in the budget
Nick: that’s not fair
me: well, life isn’t fair.

See, I’d make a great mother! 😀

The Kilwin’s lady gave Nick more ice cream than me and his response was, “Sometimes my good looks get me things.”

Other things you’ll overhear in our house:
Me: Can you mute the tv, please? I want to watch this seal dance to the Backstreet Boys.
Nick: Oh, I heard about that….

He gives me this look a lot.

Not only do we make a great team, but we’re really funny — and fun — to be around. I love him so much and wouldn’t want to spend my life with anyone else!

Happy February, everyone! I can’t believe we’re already in the second month of 2017. At the beginning of the year, I set some pretty good goals both for my life and for the blog that I’m really excited about achieving. In order to hold myself accountable, I’m going to check in each month with how/what I did to accomplish them, as well as a plan of smaller goals for the following month to continue using/accomplishing them.

Life Goals

1. Focus more on experiences and less on material things. For this goal, I simply want to get out and do more things so as to make this a habit for the little one on the way. I want him to experience the city in ways that will instill in him a love of community and adventure. He won’t be here until March/April but I figure if we start focusing on experiences now, it will come naturally when he gets here.

January Progress:
–Unfortunately, we didn’t do much in January that focused on experiences. We attended several baby showers (two of which were our own and one was for our dear friends who are due around the same time as me), and I had some job interviews so we’ve been pretty busy.

February Goals:
–I’ve signed up to recieve emails about events happening in and around my town from Get Offline, a company that curates experiences in your city for you to “keep your free time exciting.” I’m hoping that constantly seeing all of the fun things going on around me will remind and motivate me to get out and do more fun things!
–Visit the farmers’ market at least twice during the month, but ideally more if possible
–Have a fun Galentine’s and/or Valentine’s outing
–Try our hand at a DIY maternity photo shoot (I’m really excited about this one!)

2. Focus on my health and learning as much as I can about the rest of my pregnancy, labor & deliver, and being a good mother. Being and staying healthy, as well as being prepared for what is coming in the next few months and beyond, is really important to me.

January Progress:
–We attended a childbirth class and took a tour of the labor & delivery unit of our hospital. I made sure to ask as many questions as I could to understand the processes.
–To focus on my health, I’ve started taking Mia on longer walks.  Normally, she gets two to three 15-minute walks per day to do her business but since walking is good for both of us, I’ve tried to incorporate longer walks any time the weather is nice (e.g. sunny, not too cold, not raining, etc.)

February Goals:
–Prenatal yoga at least 3 times a week, with a focus on meditation and relaxation (to help me prepare for labor & delivery)
–Practice some breathing and relaxation techniques at least 3 times a week (also to help me prepare for L&D)
–More long walks with Mia as the weather permits

3. Read more books. For now, I’m sticking to my initial goal of one book per month, at least until the baby gets here when I might lower the number to 6 new books within the year.

January Progress:
–I finished Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick. It’s been one of the best celebrity autobiographies I’ve read so far. I was interested in it because I always thought she seems really cool and fun in real life and from what I’ve read, it does sound like she’s really cool and fun in real life, but she’s not without her hangups, which makes her feel all the more real to me. I would definitely recommend it.
Note: I’m continuing to choose and read books related to pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, etc. but I’m not including them in this goal.

February Goals:
–The next book on the list is Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. I only intermittently read her blog but I did read her first book and I loved it. I can’t wait to read this one.

4. Write more letters/send more cards to my friends and family. 

January Progress:
–Not so good with the progress on this one. With all that’s been going on, I haven’t had much time to think about letters and cards. I didn’t even send a birthday card this month because the one family birthday we had, we were able to have lunch with them so I gave them their card in person. I supposed that still counts, right?
–I did write and mail out some thank you cards from my first baby shower at the end of the month, so that counts, too!

February Goals:
–Continue to consult my calendar to send birthday cards
–Thank you notes for my second baby shower by the end of the month
–Choose at least two people to write a handwritten letter to by the end of the month

Blog Goals

5. Write more content. I used to write a lot. Somewhere along the line I stopped writing for fun and I want to get that back. So, along with journaling more and writing more stories for myself, I will focus on creating some original and fun content for the blog.

January Progress:
–I’ve included a few new features that aren’t just outfit related (e.g., NCsquared Conversations, my mini house tour post) so I think I’ve gotten a good start. I would still like to incorporate some of my personal views on things, but I have to figure out how to do that in a peaceful and non-divisive way.

February Goals:
–At least 3 Fashion Flashback posts where I compare my style over the past few years. It’s style related but at least I can incorporate some thoughts.
–Writing more stories about my childhood and incorporating more humor into the blog

6. Post more often. Writing more content should lead to posting more often. I’m still aiming for 3-4 posts per week.

January Progress:
–I’ve gotten off to a good start with posting at least three time a week

February Goals:
–Post at least three time per week
–Spend more time on the weekends planning and writing,
–Maybe even try to take photos in the morning when I first get dressed instead of waiting until the evening (when it’s much less likely to happen) or the weekend

7. Take better pictures. This year, I resolve to comprehend more about lighting, ISO, aperture, exposure, focus, how to take advantage of the features on my camera, as well as better editing so that my photos look better are more appealing.

January Progress:
–I read a few tutorials on how to improve my Instagram photos. That’s a start.

February Goals:
–Read as much as I can about lighting and aperture speed to figure out the f stop feature so I can take my camera off of its automatic mode!

8. Grow my readership.  I would like to create content that is fun and engaging for a lot of people and, therefore, gain more readers.

January Progress:
–I’ll admit I haven’t done much this month to grow my readership. I did start a Facebook Page for the blog and have done a decent job of keeping it updated.

February Goals:
–Read at least 2-3 blog posts from other bloggers that give advice on growing your readership and brainstorming how I can incorporate their advice into my blog
–Make a plan to incorporate at least 3 new ideas from these advice posts by the end of the month
–Participate in more link ups

The year is off to a great start. Here’s to hoping I can keep up the momentum, especially after the baby gets here in March!

While I try to practice gratitude every day of my life, I like to spend the month of November reflecting on and giving thanks for all the wonderful things in my life. In the past, I’ve highlighted tangible things like handwritten mail and flowers, as well as more abstract concepts like laughter and family traditions.

This year, I struggled a bit to figure out what I wanted to highlight. Not because I’m ungrateful for the wonderful blessings in my life, but because I feel like I’m always thankful for the same things – family, friends, food, etc. – and I don’t want to repeat all of those things to my readers, even though I truly am grateful for those things every single day.

I decided that for this year’s gratitude posts, I would highlight some more specific examples of what I’m thankful for. And when it comes to family, I’ll start with my husband, Nick.

I feel like I could write a book about all of the reasons that Nick is awesome. He truly deserves all the praise he gets and then some. One thing I really admire about him is that he works really hard to create a fulfilling career for himself and to take care of our family. Luckily, this doesn’t mean long hours away at some job, but rather putting forth his best effort both at the office and at home. Sometimes he’s recognized for it, and often times he isn’t, but he always gets the job done.

I’m also extremely grateful that he keeps me going when my anxiety starts to get the best of me. Getting enough sleep and not having a ton of things to worry about really helps keep the anxiety away. Nick knows this so he does a lot to let me keep my much-needed routines. Little things, like preparing Sebastian’s bottles so that I can go to sleep early if that’s what I need that day, really do go a long way. He takes care of the budgeting and the finances, making sure we’re on track to meet our goals and keeping me from blowing all of our money on food. And I never hear him complain.

Finally, I’m incredibly thankful that he’s so good at making me laugh, even when I don’t always feel like it. If you’ve read any of our conversations, you’re already familiar with his dry sense of humor. It’s completely opposite of mine, and I think that’s why he gets me giggling so often. Laughing is one of my favorite things in the world so having someone by my side every day that can crack me up with just one look is a real blessing.

Look, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies with us but we have it pretty darn good. We love each other very much, we agree on (and even dislike) the same things, and we want the best for each other, no matter what. I’m super lucky to wake up next to him and our awesome little guy every day.

And for that, I am super thankful!

I haven’t been able to get many good photos the past few weeks with my camera because of being busy and not feeling well, but I have shared some good stuff on Instagram. Here’s a round up of what’s been going on this week in the life of NCsquared as seen through Instagram filters.

Last week started out cold and snowy. This picture is exactly what I was talking about in this Thankful Thursday post. As I mentioned there, I often enjoy venturing out in the crisp air or snow on a sunny winter day and getting to bundle up in cute hats and scarves and coats. These are the days when the bright, winter sun glitters in the snow and everything is quiet and calm. Can’t you just feel the calm in this photo?

It started to warm up a bit and all I needed was a sweater, button-up, and puffer vest to stay warm. I wore this to one of our Centering Pregnancy classes where we talked to a labor and delivery nurse from the hospital where I’ll be delivering Baby S. I left feeling very lucky that our hospital is so accommodating to women in childbirth. The nurse kept saying that everything is a conversation, from what kind of pain management you want to how you make your room more comfortable to where you actually give birth (lying in the bed, squatting in the floor, etc.) which I think is SUPER important to creating a positive birthing experience!

Sweater & Button-up: Banana Republic | Puffer Vest: Gap | Jeans: Liz Lange Maternity via Target | Boots: BP Trolley via Nordstrom

As it started to warm up even more and the snow slowly melted, the hazy fog rolled in. Look at this beautiful morning. It was so stunning that it almost took my breath away. It gave me renewed energy for the week and made me feel like everything was going to be all right.

By Friday, it was in the 70s! Only in North Carolina does the week begin with Winter and end with Spring. I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to take advantage of the weather, so I threw on a floral top and canvas shoes to run errands. I won’t really be pregnant in the spring, as Baby S’s due date is a few days after the official first day of spring this year so it was nice to not have to bundle up the bump when I ventured outside.

This photo was taken just a few nights ago. It may not look like it, but the bump continues to grow and that means making myself comfortable is getting increasingly difficult. I have a pair of maternity pajamas and I wear them almost every night but on laundry nights or nights that it’s a bit colder in the house, I’ll wear Nick’s clothes. And I’ve discovered that there’s no piece of maternity clothing that is as comfortable as his t-shirts!

That’s it, lovelies. I hope you all had a great week. I will try my best to be back next week with better photos, I promise! Until then, stay warm or cool and be happy.